Ethereal Shadows

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Ethereal Shadows
Communications and Power in Contemporary Italy
Franco “Bifo” Berardi, Marco Jacquemet, & Marco Jacquemet
Translated from Italian by Jessica Otey

Focusing on Italian “videocracy,” Ethereal Shadows documents the emergence of the first Italian media mogul, Silvio Berlusconi, and his rises and falls from political power. It also explores Italian media activism through three case studies: a discussion of the first autonomous free radio station, Radio Alice
(broadcasting in Bologna between 1977 and 1979); a review of Italian Internet activism focusing on the site Rekombinant.org (launched in 2000); and a chronicle of the emergence of OrfeoTV in 2002, the first illegal micro-TV station in Italy.

“Ethereal Shadows is a landmark achievement in contemporary media studies: a must read for anyone who wants to understand contemporary media power— the impasses of totalitarian spectacular power as well as the exodus routes of autonomous constituent communication powers.” — Jack Z. Bratich, author Conspiracy Panics

Cover Illustration and Book Design by r&s media

Communicating Vessels

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Communicating Vessels
An Anthology of Essays
Anthony Leskov, editor and primary contributor

This 200-page book brings together various essays, parables and poems from the publication Communicating Vessels. At first glance it might appear to be a quirky blend. But taken as a whole this work attempts to recover our ability to historicize, reason and dream. Leskov draws links between the world as it once existed, as it exists today and how it could be potentially different in the future. Interspersed throughout is a searching effort to bring together the best elements of social and political theory, history, literature and poetry. As a lifelong researcher of social history and social movements, Leskov vigorously argues against the absurd “end of history” thesis put forth by the academy and society at large. Leskov suggests we still have the ability to remake our lives and our world. But to get there we must confront both our lives and our world with imagination,...

Provo

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Provo
Amsterdam’s Anarchist Revolt
Richard Kempton

Provo staged political and cultural interventions into the symbolic and everyday spaces of Holland from 1962–1967. In this first book-length English-language study of their history, Richard Kempton narrates the rise and fall of Provo from early Dutch “happenings” staged in 1962 to the “Death of Provo” in 1967. He chronicles Robert Jasper Grootveld’s anarchist anti-cancer campaign, the riots against Princess Beatrix’s marriage to an ex-Nazi, and the famous White Bicycle program. He also comments on parallel contemporary and near-contemporary movements (including Dada and Situationism), Amsterdam’s previous anarchist traditions, the spread of Provo through Holland and the development of the Kabouter party, and ends by offering an existentialist critique of Provo and other anarchist movements of the 1960s.
“This book is more than welcome. It begins to remedy the striking paucity of reading matter in English on the Provo movement—a movement with so many lessons, both positive and negative, for radicals today.”...

Akiba

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Akiba
A Gnostic Novel
p.m.
In the 1980s, p.m.’s book bolo’bolo became an indispensable guide to new autonomous projects, a manual for “applied utopias”on a human scale, stressing cultural diversity, freedom of movement, ecological sustainability, and a relaxed attitude towards work — themes which remain essential in his new novel, Akiba.

When a tiny detail on a coin disappears for a moment, Marco Vilini, a Swiss insurance-fraud investigator, enters a crisis of subjectivity, and the dull despair of civilized life in Zürich is countered by the neo-Gnostic philosophies of an urban eco-community called “Akiba.”

Seduced by the reasoning and logic of the community, and convinced of the virtual nature of all experience, Marco and his companion soon make a mortal leap out of this world, arriving in a meta-universe called “Limboland.” After a timeless exploration of this infinite paradise, they return to Earth with a renewed capacity to bring about utopia here and now....

Clash of Fundamentalisms

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In this timely and important book, Tariq Ali puts the events of September 11 into sweeping historical perspective. As we have come to expect from him, he is lucid, eloquent, literary, and painfully honest, as he dissects both Islamic and Western fundamentalism.

The aerial attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, a global spectacle of unprecedented dimensions, generated an enormous volume of commentary. The inviolability of the American mainland, breached for the first time since 1812, led to extravagant proclamations by the pundits. It was a new world-historical turning point. The 21st century, once greeted triumphally as marking the dawn of a worldwide neoliberal civilization, suddenly became menaced. The choice presented from the White House and its supporters was to stand shoulder-to-shoulder against terrorism or be damned.

Tariq Ali challenges these assumptions, arguing instead that what we have experienced is the return of History in a horrific form, with religious symbols playing a part on both sides: ‘Allah’s revenge,’ ‘God is on Our Side’ and ‘God Bless America.’

The visible violence of September 11 was the response to the invisible violence that has been inflicted on countries like Afghanistan,...

Public Netbase: Non Stop Future

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Public Netbase: Non Stop Future
New Practices in Art and Media
Edited by Konrad Becker, Branca Curcic, Zoran Pantelic, Felix Stalder, & Martin Wassermair
New information technologies have become ubiquitous and thoroughly established in our everyday lives. This marks the end of a period of intense experimentation and speculations related to the introduction of global communication systems more than a decade ago. Artists and cultural workers were the first to explore their liberatory dimensions and to apply their emancipatory potentials. These early pioneers developed a range of interdisciplinary models and practices in order to expand the scope of social participation in information society cultures. Initiatives like the radical Viennese mediaculture institution Public Netbase became important nodes in a global network dedicated to critical art, culture and science based on new media practices.

A virtual world is possible, but never without real spaces and tangible social interaction. This publication is both a review of the pioneer days from the perspective of Public Netbase as well as an outlook into the future of art and culture in digital networks....